I feel I have been offered poor service by a website called Agent Free Move. I needed to find a room quickly and saw some suitable properties on its website. But when I rang I was told that if I wanted to see any flats I would have to pay £100 up front. This, I was told, would give me a month's access to its lists of properties. I was then given the hard sell: by paying the fee up front I would be given access to properties at up to 30% less than the market rent. After visiting their offices in Marble Arch, where I was told they were too busy to see me, and against my better judgment, I paid over the phone.

I then got a call from an agent who gave me details of three properties. For one property she told me not to mention an agency but to say a "friend" had given me the number, "since the landlord was not interested in dealing with agencies".

To cut a long story short, none of the properties were suitable. In all my dealings with Agent Free Move, staff have been rude and abrupt. I know I shouldn't have paid up front for the prospect of receiving a service, but I was desperate. HM, London

Agent Free Move lists a huge number of properties to rent on its website, and a smaller number to buy. It says it can offer cheaper rents because the landlord is not paying the 10%-15% fee charged by conventional estate agents.

Citizens Advice says letting agents in England and Wales are only allowed to charge a fee if they find you somewhere to live. It is against the law for an agency to ask for payment to put your name on its lists, or provide you with a list of properties to rent.

When we rang, posing as a member of the public interested in a property, we received a similar sales patter. We were told we would have to pay upfront fees, and when we politely suggested it was up to the landlord to pay the fee, they simply put the phone down on us.

Later, we rang again, this time declaring we were from Guardian Money, but fared no better. An agent called Steve Benson did at least call us back and, in our brief conversation, he said his business model was that of a property search consultancy rather than an estate agency or letting agency. Such consultancies promise an individually tailored proactive property search, but in this instance our reader was simply inquiring about properties listed on the site.

After a brief conversation, Mr Benson put the phone down on us again. We suggest to other readers that they should never pay an upfront fee to be shown a property in this way.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumerchampions@guardian.co.uk or write to Bachelor & Brignall, Money, The Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number